Satan would like us to believe that to be religious we must "stifle" all our passions. He teaches that religion demands that we be monk-like, emotionless, boring, and incapable of any strong feelings. This, of course, is a typical twisting of the truth. A bridle is placed so that the horse's direction can be controlled. A bridle does not slow the horse's speed, it just points it in the right direction. So it is with our emotions and passions. The Lord does not expect us to stifle them. He does not expect us to be emotionless, impassionate robots. Rather, he wants us to express our passions and deepest emotions in the proper channels, within the bounds that are appropriate for their full expression.
Boyd K. Packer
"A bridle is used to guide, to direct. Our passion is to be controlled-but not controlled by extermination, as with a plague of insects; not controlled by eradication, as with a disease. It is to be controlled as electricity is controlled, to generate power and life. When lawfully used, the power of procreation will bless and it will sanctify (see Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1977], p. 309)." (The Things of the Soul, p. 109)
Bruce R. McConkie
"The Lord has placed in our bodies certain passions and certain appetites; perhaps the strongest of these deal with what we call the sex urges. Now if we walk in an unbridled manner, after the way of the world, and are immoral and lascivious and unclean, then we are reveling in the basest sort of carnal existence. But if, on the other hand, we have the strength of character and the fortitude and ability to stand up like men and bridle our passions and control our lusts and use the sex urges in the manner in which the Lord has ordained that they should be used -- which is wholesome and pure and right -- if we walk without any form of sex immorality, then we are rising above the animal plane, and we are walking in the realm of spiritual things." (Conference Report, Apr. 1958, p. 70)